The easiest way to begin using JMeter is to first download the latest production release and install it. The release contains all of the files you need to build and run Web, FTP, JDBC, and JNDI tests. If you want to perform JDBC testing, then you will, of course, need the appropriate JDBC driver from your vendor. JMeter does not come with any JDBC drivers.
Next, start JMeter and go through the Building a Test Plan section of the User Guide to familiarize yourself with JMeter basics (for example, adding and removing elements).
Finally, go through the appropriate section on how to build a specific type of Test Plan. For example, if you are interested in testing a Web application, then see the section Building a Web Test Plan. The other specific Test Plan sections are for JDBC, FTP, and JNDI.
Once you are comfortable with building and running JMeter Test Plans, you can look into the various configuration elements (timers, listeners, assertions, and others) which give you more control over your Test Plans.
JMeter requires your computing environment meets some minimum requirements.
JMeter requires a fully compliant JDK1.2 (or higher) environment. Because JMeter uses only standard Java APIs (java.*), please do not file bug reports if your JRE fails to run JMeter because of JRE implementation issues.
JMeter has been tested and works under Unix (Solaris, Linux, etc) and Windows (98, NT, 2000). JMeter is a 100% Java application and should run correctly on any system that has a compliant Java implementation.
If you plan on doing JMeter development or want to use Sun's Java Standard Extension packages, then you will need one or more optional packages listed below.
If you want to build the JMeter source or develop JMeter plugins, then you will need a fully compliant JDK1.2 or higher compiler.
JMeter comes with Apache's Xerces XML parser. You have the option of telling JMeter to use a different XML parser. To do so, include the classes for the third-party parser in JMeter's classpath, and update the jmeter.properties file with the full classname of the parser implementation.
JMeter has limited Email capabilities (it can send email based on test results). To enable Email support, add Sun's JavaMail packages to JMeter's classpath.
To test a web server using SSL encryption (HTTPS), JMeter requires that an implementation of SSL be provided (such as Sun's Java Secure Sockets Extension -- JSSE). Include the necessary encryption packages in JMeter's classpath. Also, update jmeter.properties by registering the SSL Provider.
Note: if you are running JDK1.4, then you do not have to download JSSE because Sun integrated it into JDK1.4 as a standard library.
You will need to add your database vendor's JDBC driver to the classpath if you want to do JDBC testing.
Installing JMeter is a snap. Specifics depend on which release file you downloaded.
We recommend that most users run the latest release.
To install a release build, simply unzip the zip/tar file into the directory where you want JMeter to be installed. Provided that you have a JDK correctly installed and the JAVA_HOME environment variable set, there is nothing more for you to do.
If you do not mind working with beta-quality software, then you can download and run the latest nightly build.
To install a nightly build, unzip the zip/tar file into the directory where you want JMeter to be installed. Then, open a shell or command prompt and change to JMeter's top-level directory. Next, type "build install". Provided that you have a JDK correctly installed and the JAVA_HOME environment variable set, JMeter should be installed successfully.
To run JMeter, run the jmeter.bat (for Windows) or jmeter (for Unix) file.
If JMeter does not start correctly, it may be because your system does not support the commands contained in jmeter.bat/jmeter. If this is the case, you will need to rewrite the jmeter.bat/jmeter file to explicitly include all JAR files that are located in JMeter's "lib" directory in the JMeter classpath.
The jmeter.bat/jmeter file automatically adds all JAR files that are located in JMeter's "lib" directory to JMeter's classpath. If you want to add other JAR files to JMeter's classpath, then you must copy them to JMeter's "lib" directory.
If you are testing from behind a firewall/proxy server, you may need to provide JMeter with the firewall/proxy server hostname and port number. To do so, run the jmeter.bat/jmeter file from a command line with the following parameters:
-h [proxy server hostname or ip address]
-p [proxy server port]
Example: jmeter -h my.proxy.server -p 8000
For non-interactive testing, you may choose to run JMeter without the GUI. Run the nongui.bat/nongui.sh script has one required parameter:
-o [name of JMX file that contains the Test Plan].
The script also lets you specify the optional firewall/proxy server information:
-h [proxy server hostname or ip address]
-p [proxy server port]
Example: nongui -o my_test.jmx -h my.proxy.server -p 8000
If you wish to modify the properties with which JMeter runs you need to either modify the jmeter.properties inside of the /bin directory or create your own copy of the jmeter.properties and specify it in the command line (jmeter [properties file]).